This season, the New England Revolution will be getting a big in-game assist from Big D & the Kids Table.
The veteran Boston ska band has joined forces with our local Major League Soccer team’s supporter groups to write and record a handful of new crowd chants for upcoming home games. And the partnership comes just in time for the March 12 home opener at Gillette Stadium, when the Revs take on DC United.
The fan chants were recorded last month at Galaxy Park Studios in Watertown, with Big D being joined by members of Revolution supporter groups the Rebellion, Midnight Riders, and Rev Army. Each game, those groups populate “The Fort” at Gillette Stadium, the rowdy corner of the stands where most of the in-game chants are born and team support reaches a fever pitch.
Big D frontman Dave McWane says the idea for this musical union was born after his band played a Halloween show at Brighton Music Hall this past fall. He was first approached by Matt Puglise, a board member of the Rebellion. “On the way out, Matt …came up to one of us and was like ‘You know what you should do, you should write us some anthems,” McWane says in the Revolution Soccer video below. “And little did he know we were like ‘Yeah that’s a great idea, let’s do it’. So here we are, writing some anthems”.
In all, there are three new songs written by Big D, including main anthem “Trouble Is Coming Your Way”, as well as several re-recorded versions of classic Revolution chants, and all are available for download via nerebellion.org.
“It was just a natural fit for us being supporters of New England, and being so proud of where were from, hooking up with a band that is also proud to be from this area and proud to be ingrained in the culture,” says Puglise, via MLSsoccer.com. “A lot of us in the Rebellion especially, and in the Riders and the Army, we’re all punk rock kids [who] grew up with that kind of stuff.”
As 25 Revs supporters filled Galaxy Park on January 10, McWane says it was easy to connect with their hometown pride. “When you play in a band and you’re from a city you love, you go on tour a lot and sometimes you start to miss home desperately,” he adds. “To be a part of something that is home, that is a big deal.”
The chants can be downloaded individually for $1, or all 12 can be had for $5. The money raised will go towards funding supporter group projects like this one. Big D, meanwhile, are set to head out on a 20th anniversary tour this spring, and play the Middle East in Cambridge on April 16.
